YEAR Nine pupils at Dean Academy in Lydney harnessed wind power to run vehicles they designed last week.

The renewable engineering workshop was run by Chris Beer from STEMworks as part of a special project funded by the Ernest Cook Trust.

Chris visited the school to enthuse students about engineering and to help develop team working and STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) skills.

Chris said: “The students were tasked with making a wind turbine to generate electricity which would then pow­er a vehicle that they had to design, budget and build.

“The aim of the project is to learn about renewable energy and hopefully to inspire the next generation of engineers. The children were set a very challenging task and they did really well.”

The teams were judged on the distance and speed of their vehicle.

Chris added: “I saw some really good ideas and designs from

the students. Designing electrically-powered cars is something that this generation could be working on in the future.”

Andrew Winstanley, director of art, design and production at the academy told the Review: “Our students really enjoyed the workshop which was both exciting and stimulating. It was a great opportunity for them to work in teams and develop their STEM skills in an interesting and practical way.”

Lily Matthews, Molly Popplewell and Alice Cresswell were the winners for the fastest vehicle and the winning team for distance was Migkel Keivani, Niall Woolvern and Josh Turley.